A number of conditions and diseases of the central nervous system (i.e., brain and spinal cord), peripheral nervous system and heart adversely affect humans. These conditions and diseases include, for example, spinal cord injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain tumors, Fabry Disease, congestive heart failure and myocardial infarction. Clinical management strategies, for example, frequently focus on the prevention of further damage or injury rather than replacement or repair of the damaged tissue (e.g., neurons, glial cells, cardiac muscle); include treatment with exogenous steroids and synthetic, non-cellular pharmaceutical drugs; and have varying degrees of success which may depend on the continued administration of the steroid or synthetic drug.
For example, the majority of spinal cord injuries are compression injuries with the remaining cases involving complete transection of the spinal cord. Current therapeutic treatments for spinal cord injury include the prevention of additional spinal cord injury by physically stabilizing the spine through surgical and non-surgical procedures and by inhibiting the inflammatory response with steroidal therapy. Thus, there is a need to develop new, improved and effective methods of treatment for diseases and conditions, in particular, neurological and cardiac diseases and conditions, in humans.